The Potter Blogger

Snily/Jily

Hello, my incredible readers! I'm sorry there hasn't been an update in a while and I haven't been responding to your lovely comments, but I have a good excuse!

For the last week I've been in Alaska and Canada on vacation and I've had little to no phone service.

But now I'm back and ready to jump back into writing!

Who's excited?!

Whooo!!

Okay, okay, enough of that! We have very important Potterhead things to discuss.

I promised in the last update that I would write a chapter on Snily, so this is it. There are a lot of different points of view on this topic, and of course, I am only stating mine. If you disagree, that's fine! Please comment and tell me why! All I ask is that you read to the end first.

I'm going to start off by being very direct: I do not ship Snily

Here are my reasons for this:

1: Yes, Snape loved her, and I do believe his love was true and real, but loving someone does not give you the rights to that person.

If you really boil it down to the truth, one simple fact remains. Snape was Xtreme Friendzoned.

He did something inexcusable and she cut him out of her life. That's that. But no, that wasn't that because Snape did not let it go.

I understand that he loved her and I get that teenage heartbreak feels like death, but come on!

He was in the prime of his life with his whole future ahead of him and he threw it away to pout.

Think about how sad this really is. Here we have a grown man who is bullying children while in a teaching position, never happy once, dresses completely in black, takes out his rage on a child who's done nothing to him, and for what? A romance that never even happened from his teenage years!

Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh, but the more I think about it, the sillier he gets.

2: Lily had every right to not remain his friend.

What he called her was not okay on any level. And what's more, it represented the change that Snape was already going through, a change that she had serious problems with. She could see that her childhood friend was going down the wrong path, but she couldn't stop him. He became more and more dangerous, doing things he shouldn't and keeping the company of those who could only lead him badly.

Listen, here's my little piece of (mediocre, I'm sure) wisdom for you: If someone isn't good to have in your life, if they're doing things you can't accept, or if they can only be a bad influence, you have the right to remove them from your life.

There are two many good people and experiences in this world to let the bad ones effect you. 😊

3: We don't know that Lily ever had romantic feelings for Snape.

Think about that for a moment. We are basing an entire relationship on what may or may not have been mutual interest!

Isn't it possible that Lily thought of Snape as a good friend but never even looked at him romantically?

We just don't know! And I understand that half the fun of fandoms are the headcannons and the AU fics, but I think of these characters like they're people and their choices matter to me. Lily chose James, and romantic or not, she chose not to pursue a relationship with Snape. That matters to me.

So, yeah, those are my reasons. And now, I'm going to delve into James a bit.

A lot of Snily shippers hit hard where James' past is concerned, and I can see why. There's a lot of dirt to dig up there.

I'm not going to try to tell you that James was a perfect little pumpkin of goodness...yeah, that's a weird phrase...but here's what I will say about him:

He was willing to change for the better, and he did it for love. He did it for Lily.

He let her teach him to be a better man and he grew up for her, something that Snape wouldn't do. If anything, Snape had the reverse of James' transformation. James grew and changed for good, Snape fell and changed for bad.

But you know what I like the most about this whole situation? Lily!

She was a good and loyal friend to Snape until she couldn't be any longer. She refused to give James the time of day until he was willing to become a better man. This girl is an international treasure.

Now, I'd like to end this chapter with my views on Snape. You might have read this far and come to the conclusion that I don't like him, but that is not the case. I think he is one of the most brilliant and well-developed literary characters ever written. I think his story really completed the books and I know it wouldn't be the same without him.

But I don't think a tragic backstory makes him blameless, and I especially don't think that Queen Jo wanted us to think that.

In my opinion, Snape was meant to demonstrate one of the main points of the story, that there is good and bad in all of us, and what matters is what we choose to act upon. He made good choices and bad ones and they both had major effects on his life.

I love Snape as a character, but no, I don't think he should have won the girl. (Not that Lily is the type of girl to be won)

So that's it for this update! Comment and tell me what you think, and as always, give it a vote if you enjoyed reading it! I'll talk to you again very soon. 😘

~The Potter Blogger